Ogun deploys waste management strategy to battle COVID-19

The Ogun State government says it has deployed a healthcare waste management as a strategy in the efforts to reduce the community spread of coronavirus in the state. The Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Head of the State Waste Management Authority, Ola Oresanya, stated this at the training of health workers on […]

The Ogun State government says it has deployed a healthcare waste management as a strategy in the efforts to reduce the community spread of coronavirus in the state.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Head of the State Waste Management Authority, Ola Oresanya, stated this at the training of health workers on proper healthcare waste management at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) in Sagamu.

According to Oresanya, there was the need to train health workers on proper sorting of wastes so they wouldn’t be infected and in turn spread the pandemic in their various communities.

He explained that all health-related institutions must store their wastes in different waste bags with labels that explain how dangerous they are. “Red stands for Dangerous; Yellow for Infectious; Brown for Not too Infectious and Black for Ordinary Wastes,” he explained.

He urged the health workers to help the state government in its efforts to stop the community spread of COVID 19.

Oresanya added that all health institutions in the state would henceforth be assigned with specialised Waste Managers for proper disposal of their wastes, just as he implored them to stop dumping their wastes into domestic or public wastes.

Two of the participants, Mr Adetayo Jokotagba and Mrs Yetunde Ogundehinde, applauded the government for the new healthcare management initiative. They said the initiative would help in curbing the community spread of the pandemic.